Movies: 'Jade Scorpion' is less than the sum of its parts

''The Curse of the Jade Scorpion'' boasts one of Woody Allen's more clever comic premises, which makes for a mild disappointment when the movie proves only intermittently entertaining.

Cast: Woody Allen, Helen Hunt, Charlize Theron, Dan Akroyd

Rating: PG-13

Closest theater: Jacksonville

Along with the sharp story line, the ingredients are here for a top-notch Allen comedy: A prewar setting he's mined well in the past. A cast with a promising mix of Allen newcomers and veterans. Great jazz tunes snazzily integrated into the action.

But the whole of ''Jade Scorpion'' somehow is less than the sum of its parts. Allen's performance is muddied by a clumsy blend of his usual neurotic persona and 1930s chauvinism, while the chemistry among the cast often feels stiff and forced.

The result is a scattering of humorous peaks surrounded by long sequences that range from tolerably pleasant to downright unfunny.

''Jade Scorpion'' is the second in a series of lighter films based on comic ideas Allen's had kicking around in a drawer for a while.

Instead of a bumbling bank thief who lucks into a fortune in last year's ''Small Time Crooks,'' this time Allen plays CW Briggs, a bumbling insurance investigator who lucks into solutions on fraud cases.

Set in 1940, the movie pits the womanizing CW against his firm's new efficiency expert, Betty Ann Fitzgerald, played by Helen Hunt, doing a more hard-nosed take on her role as the female boss battling a sexist pig in ''What Women Want.''

CW trades endless barbs with Betty Ann, who threatens to shut down the insurance agency's investigative unit and farm the work out to private detectives.

Dan Akroyd co-stars as the agency's boss and Betty Ann's married lover. Rounding out the insurance crew are Elizabeth Berkley as a sweet-natured office bombshell and Allen vets Wallace Shawn and Brian Markinson as CW's buddies.

The movie features two other past Allen collaborators. Charlize Theron plays the sort of spoiled rich girl Allen hero Humphrey Bogart always bumped into on cases. David Ogden Stiers co-stars as Voltan, a magician who sets the crime caper in motion.

During an office dinner party, Voltan hypnotizes CW and Betty Ann, forcing them to play-act as loving honeymooners. Voltan leaves behind post-hypnotic command words so he can use them later to pull off jewel heists in mansions CW has burgle-proofed.

That puts CW on the case, oblivious to the fact that the thief he's trying to catch is himself.

The plot sounds delightful in broad strokes. The movie stumbles in the details, though.

The repartee is uneven, a handful of zingers mixing with too many throwaway lines. Most of the supporting cast is left too far in the background to feel like more than bit players.

With his resonant voice, Stiers alone emerges to grab the audience's interest in his brief screen time.

Hunt is very earnest, but her comic talents seem too refined for Allen's blunt, lowbrow exchanges. Allen has had better rapport with other recent leading ladies such as Tracey Ullman and Mira Sorvino.

The movie does acknowledge a criticism often aimed at Allen's movies about his characters' relationships with gorgeous, much younger women. At one point, Betty Ann barks that CW is too old, short and nearsighted for her.